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LARVOTTO RESOURCES LTD (LRV) - Redefining Critical Minerals: CEO Ron Heeks on Major Mineral Projects, Strategic Market Impacts, and Drilling Insights

September 12, 2024 • Andrew Musgrave

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Curious about how a small company can shake up global markets? Discover how Larvotto Resources is positioning itself at the forefront of the critical minerals industry with CEO Ron Heeks. This episode of ASX Briefs pulls back the curtain on Larvotto's journey from its 2021 IPO to becoming a key player in Australia's mineral exploration scene. Ron dives into their major projects, including the Mount Isa copper venture and the rare earth prospects in Western Australia. However, it's their Hillgrove gold-antimony project that's turning heads, especially in light of China's recent antimony export ban. We unpack the implications for modern tech and defense sectors, and how Larvotto plans to meet soaring global demand.

But that's not all. Ron provides an insider's look at the extensive RC drilling program at Hillgrove, revealing some tantalizing high-grade gold finds and the depth potential at Baker's Creek. With the largest antimony deposit in Australia and eighth globally, Larvotto is gearing up for significant growth. We also get a preview of what's next for their robust project portfolio, including future exploration plans for Mount Isa and Eyre. If you're an investor or just fascinated by the evolving landscape of critical minerals, this episode is a must-listen packed with actionable insights and forward-looking statements.

Andrew Musgrave:

Welcome to another episode of ASX Briefs, and today we're joined by Ron Heeks, the CEO of Larvotto Resources, a company making significant strides in the exploration and development of critical mineral projects across various Australian projects. Ron, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the podcast.

Ron Heeks:

Thank you and great to be here.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, can we just start off if you can give us a bit of a history about the company since its IPO back in 2021.

Ron Heeks:

Yes, look, we've been around for two and a half years now, mainly focused on copper around Mount Isa. Very, very interesting rare earths play in Western Australia with some of the highest rare earths grades in clay minerals. So that's very interesting. But really the focus for us now is our Hill grove gold antimony project. The critical mineral antimony really come to the fore. Recently, having been banned in in China, they don't want to export it anymore because they need to control the market for their own internal use. So that's really highlighted everything about antimony and it's been an exciting run over the last eight months that we've had the project.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and you've recently commenced a large RC drilling program at the Hillgrove project, so can you share more about the objectives of this drilling campaign and what you're hoping to achieve?

Ron Heeks:

Yes, we started with RC drilling. We're bringing on two diamond rigs in the near term as well, but the RC drilling is focusing on an open cut that we'll be supplying ore for the start-up at Hillgrove. This is particularly high antimony, in the sort of 4% to 7% range, but also with extremely nice gold values. So some wonderful intersections there. You know, 10 meters at 20 grams equivalent and things like that. It's already in our reserve. But we're extending that zone both to depth and a long strike. So 5,000 meter drill program there. We're about a quarter of the way through that as we speak and seeing some interesting looking mineralization. So it'll be interesting to see the assays that come out of that.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and then antimony is listed as a critical mineral by several countries due to its applications in modern technology and defence. So how is the company positioning the project to meet the increasing global demand?

Ron Heeks:

Look, we are the largest antimony deposit in Australia and the eighth largest in the world. Most other operations have decreasing antimony grades as they get deeper and the interesting thing about these zones is they tend to start with high antimony near surface and once you get deeper they tend to go to very high grade gold. You're seeing that sort of thing with Southern Cross Gold in Victoria, Fosterville, Costerfield. They're all quite similar and overseas much the same as well. So we've still got a lot of new surface mineralisation, quite nice grade. We are about the only producer or new production company around, producer or near production company around. Certainly there's one in the US which has orders of magnitude lower grade than us, but we've certainly got the best grade and we're the nearest to production, looking forward to producing late next year or very early 26.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and the recent drilling at Baker's Creek returned some impressive high-grade gold results. So what do these findings mean for the overall potential of the project?

Ron Heeks:

Oh, it just means the depth potential looks very, very good and that sort of goes on with what we're saying earlier. You get a high-end antimoney in the top and deeper down you get gold. So that's some of the deepest holes drilled into this field and you know our best hit 30 meters at two ounces is exceptional. There's hits in that area of 200 to 500 grams as well. So that's currently sitting outside our resource and it's in fact it's outside our exploration target. But we'll be doing more drilling on on that in the very near term. The next diamond rig that we come on we'll we'll go there. That that mineralisation is deeper, but it's still only about 200 metres below the current underground workings that we'll be mining.

Andrew Musgrave:

OK and beyond Hillgrove. The company has a strong portfolio of projects, including Mount Isa and Eyre. So how do you prioritise these projects and what can investors expect from these exploration efforts in the near term?

Ron Heeks:

Oh look, it's difficult when it's sort of really all about Hillgrove at the moment, but we will be drilling Mount Isa later in the year. We've got several excellent copper gold targets up there that we do want to follow up and that's more a big picture type area for us much larger scale deposits, so a lot of work to be done up there. We're very close to Isar so it's an easy place to drill. Our Eyre project with the rare earths. We've got some metallurgy going on on the rare earths at the moment. We need to make sure that we've got a processing option for those. Once we determine that, then we'll move forward on more drilling. But pretty exciting times right across there. But and certainly the antimony you know the antimony prices moved from $9,000 a tonne when we acquired this project to $25,000 a tonne, so it's a very exciting time to be in the game.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, and there's obviously a lot of interest in the company. So, if we look forward, what can shareholders look out for over the next 12 to 18 months?

Ron Heeks:

Well, we've just released our PFS. Our BFS will be out late this year. Very early next year We'll have three drill rigs running on site. We'll be expecting some pretty interesting results from the RC drilling that's happening at the moment. Plus the deeper diamond later on this year. We'll be moving into project financing early next year. I think the news flow is going to be pretty good and pretty exciting over the next 12 months.

Andrew Musgrave:

Okay, Ron. Well, it's great to get an update on the company. Obviously plenty going on and we look forward to further updates in the upcoming months.

Ron Heeks:

Excellent. Look forward to providing them and thanks for the chance to keep everybody informed.

Andrew Musgrave:

Great Thank you. That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.